Introduction

Have you ever been through something and then realize that the only limiting factor in that experience was yourself? And you wonder how it could have turned out if you hadn’t put limitations on yourself? Very often we put limitations, and even discouragement, on ourselves b/c of what we believe about ourselves. On the other hand, we can choose to reject those negative, life-sucking beliefs about ourselves and replace them with positive, life-giving ones, which I believe is the starting point to unleash our potential and change the trajectory of our lives.

As a software developer, I have periodically experienced what’s known as the Impostor Syndrome. Wikipedia defines it as follows:

It is a concept describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and have a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Despite external evidence of their competence, those exhibiting the syndrome remain convinced that they are frauds and do not deserve the success they have achieved. Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a result of deceiving others into thinking they are more intelligent and competent than they believe themselves to be.

Statistically speaking, this phenomenon is very common. People from all kinds of backgrounds have experienced it at some point in their lives. I know it is very prevalent among software developers b/c there’s a lot of chatter about it in the software developer community. I have experienced it myself for several years. You probably have too at some point.

Whew! Good. It’s not just me, and it’s not just you!

The Impostor Syndrome is just one example of a much bigger issue. It’s the tip of the iceberg of a much more vast topic, which is about how your belief affects your life. The unfortunate fact is: very commonly people have bad beliefs about themselves, and it negatively affects them. On the other hand, if you have good beliefs about yourself, then it can positively affect you.

To take it one step further, I believe having good beliefs about yourself is the prerequisite to achieving greater success and bringing about long-lasting change in your life. I know it has for me.

My experience with Impostor Syndrome in my job

In my first job as a software developer, I subconsciously doubted myself from day one. I had a lot of theoretical knowledge about programming from college , but this was different. This was creating software in real life for real users. Unfortunately I didn’t have a mentor at my first job to help me along. I was on my own. Whenever I was given a new project to work on, my first thought was usually: “how in the world am I gonna do that? They are going to find out soon that I’m not really as good of a programmer as they thought I was!” Then, since I had no choice but to try it, I made myself learn new things and keep working at it, eventually I got it done, and then I thought to myself: “that wasn’t so bad! Why did I think it was going to be hard or impossible in the beginning? Why did I have so little faith in myself?”

Word of advice: surround yourself with people who believe in you

One major factor that helped stretch me and made me grow was how other people believed in me, probably more than I believed in myself. I remember early on in that job, I had a conversation with the CEO about a new project I was assigned to. I felt very inadequate with my abilities and experience. I told him that I wasn’t sure if I would be able to meet his expectations. Surprisingly, he didn’t even hesitate to tell me that he believed I could do it. Wow! I was instantly motivated and inspired. His firm belief in me made me step up my game and measure up to his expectation. That gave me enough fuel to believe that I could do it, and I did. This kind of energizing pattern repeated for more projects where I felt like my coworkers and superiors believed in me more than I believed myself. I kept getting stretched and stretched, and eventually I started believing in myself too.

Light bulb moment: finally saw how my belief about myself affected me

So I finally started seeing a pattern. I started seeing the truth for what it really is. See, when I successfully completed those projects, the main factor was not that I got smarter all of a sudden, or I gained more knowledge. It was the fact that I believed that I could do it, even though it seemed impossible in the beginning. If I didn’t believe I could do it, I wouldn’t have even tried it. I would have asked the project to be assigned to someone else, or quit my job, or even change my career.

It had a lot more to do with my thinking than my doing. It had a lot more to do with what I believed about myself than my actual capabilities. You see, once I believed it was possible to do the hard or impossible thing, my capabilities measured up to my belief. Sometimes it’s the other way around. Sometimes we have the capabilities already, but we limit ourselves by our beliefs and don’t believe we have what it takes, even though others see very clearly that we can do it.

How I apply the power of belief to my job now, for good or bad

Now that I have a better understanding of this truth, I apply it to my job every day as a software developer. It has actually made me a better developer. Let me explain. My job is to design and write software. Before I do that I have to know exactly what it is that I want to accomplish. (Believe me, that’s not as straightforward as it sounds) Then I have to believe that it’s possible to do it. It’s easy to believe it if it’s something similar to what I have done before. But if it’s a new thing that’s nothing like what I’ve done before, then it becomes daunting.

The first thing that usually happens is that I will have self-doubt. I start to head down that dark path where I feel inadequate, incapable, even fraudulent. But now I know better. I catch those negative thoughts and reject them, and I remind myself that the most important thing is to believe that I can do it. I take a leap of faith. I move forward with confidence, which in turn gives my fellow team members confidence too, as an added bonus.

Once I have mentally fortified myself, I then figure out theoretically what steps are needed to get it done, and then I write the code that implements those steps. As more and more steps are implemented, my faith increases and I believe more and more that it is possible to accomplish my goal. If all goes well, then I actually accomplish what I set out to accomplish according to my plan, and I gain a great sense of satisfaction. This is how a successful project works out.

On the other hand, there have been several projects that I didn’t take on. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even try. Why? B/c the project sounded intimidating to me, so subconsciously I didn’t believe I had what it took to get it done. It was that Impostor Syndrome again. Now I regret it very much. I could have at least tried and see how far I went. It could have given me opportunities I never thought of. When I reflect on these things, I realize that my technical skills and capabilities actually played a very small part in feeling that way. The main factor was what I believed about myself.

This changes everything!

So far I’ve shown you how my belief about myself affects how I do my job as a software developer. But it’s not a stretch to see that it affects how we do everything in life. That’s right. Everything in life starts with our thinking. You are who you are today b/c of the choices you’ve made, and those choices are a direct result of our beliefs about ourselves. If you want to change the direction of your life, you will have to change your thinking first. You can’t control every thought that comes to mind, but you can control what you dwell on. You can control what you believe about yourself. To do that, it takes discipling your mind.

Discipline your mind

Discipling your mind is one of the hardest things you will ever do. It’s not a one time event. It’s something you need to do continually. The result of discipling your mind is not always immediate. Most of the time it’s an ongoing process, and you won’t reap the benefits of good belief until months or years later. That’s why most people don’t pay attention to it. But it is the starting point to changing your life. I’d like to offer a couple of tips for doing this.

• Pay attention to the voices in your head. You will start to notice that there are lots of them that are negative, telling you that you can’t do this, or that. Start catching them and rejecting them. Don’t even entertain them for a second. There will be plenty of people out there who tell you what you can’t do something. Don’t do that to yourself too.
• Start with some baby steps to get you out of comfort zone. Believe that you can do it, and try it. You may be pleasantly surprised at the end. For eg, one friend of mine invited me to do an obstacle course/mud run with him several years ago. My first reaction was “No way! I’m not fit enough to do that! That’s for people who are a lot more fit than me!” But then I trained and tried it, and I loved it. I’ve been doing it every year since then. And my physical fitness has gone up a whole new level b/c of it. So glad I believed that I could do it, even just a little bit.
• Get to know some people that you wouldn’t typically care to know just b/c they are way different from you. Yeah, that’s right! You know what I’m talking about! You don’t care to know them b/c they don’t seem to share anything in common with you, and that makes you feel uncomfortable. But those people are usually the ones who are more likely to introduce you to a new way of thinking and rock your boat, and that might just be what you need!

Conclusion

Have you thought about how a baby learns to walk? It’s truly remarkable. Do you realize that a baby learns to walk by faith, not by his/her capabilities? A baby will fail hundreds of times, if not more, to try to learn to walk. Based on their physical capabilities and their track record, they really should give up. But they keep trying and trying. Why? For one reason. B/c they see their mom and dad walking all day long, so they believe they are destined to do the same.

Sometimes in order to achieve the impossible, that’s all we need: to believe that we can.

PS: I am so thankful to all the people who have spoken life into me, who believed in me more than I believed in myself, who cheered me on. I am esp. thankful to my wife who has believed in, encouraged and supported me since the day we met. Finally, I am thankful to my Lord and Savior Jesus who is my ultimate cheerleader!